Tuesday, September 4, 2001
After work, Patrick makes his ever-appetizing yellow curry chicken recipe at Brian and Kelly's for dinner. It's the first homecooked dinner in the dining room in their new home. We also have steamed rice; a mixed greens salad with mushrooms, peppers, and vinaigrette; and some naan picked up from Bombay Indian. We toasted with chardonnay and Calistoga lemon. Nina dropped by in a surprise visit. Eric H did as well just a few minutes later. Brian told of layoffs his company had today, and the other big news today was the HP and Compaq merger. For the first time I've heard in the new place, Brian says, "This feels like home." After dinner, we gathered in the kitchen (briefly) then the living room. The talk of Bea Arthur's recent visit to A Different Light Bookstore two weeks ago prompted the programming of The Golden Girls in the TiVo, and Brian then had a sudden urge to watch Designing Women as well. We happened to catch one on right then, watched the last ten minutes, and then Brian declared he'd had enough Designing Women for the next decade. Patrick was very sleepy (maybe the wine?). We ended up leaving late—around 10:15 pm. We waited at MUNI Church Street station for 15 minutes, and then a MUNI operator in the station announced that there was a backup of trains at Van Ness. "It's gonna be awhile." We returned to the surface (where there were about 350 people on the Market Street island waiting for an inbound bus or streetcar), getting a cab after about 7 minutes (not bad, huh?), and making it home for $13. My one-month MUNI pass cost $32, but now I realize I need to allocate $45 per month for public transit.